Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) Spectroscopy can yield information about the structural environment which in a material. This makes it possible consequently arrive at information about the functional aspects related to molecular systems. These are sufficient enough criteria to look for applications of NMR to studies on toxicity aspects.

The phenomenon of NMR owes its possibility to the fact that atomic nuclei possess nuclear magnetic moments. The material in which these atoms, with their characteristic nuclei, are present can be either in the elemental form or in a molecular frame work. The bare nuclei are distinguished from the context of the occurrence of these nuclei in atoms and molecules, by the fact that the surrounding electrons modify the resonance characteristics of the nuclei. Consequently a nuclei of a heavy element being surrounded by more number of electrons than lighter elements can reflect in the NMR characteristics. More over, the same atomic nuclei present in different electronic structural situations from one molecule to another can bring in further distinguishing features characteristically to be identified with the molecule with the nuclei as the indicator element.

Such a disposition of arriving at structural information by the NMR can also be advantageously utilized in the context of toxicity studies. The literature documentation of the use of Multi Nuclear NMR for the studies of toxic heavy elements is abundant.

An effort to list out the toxic heavy elements which are amenable to study by multi nuclear NMR would be made indicating the characteristic features of such systems which provide the key to unravel the potential use. The trace element analysis, trace element speciation aspects would be compared with the other techniques available for similar studies.

The environmental concerns and their solutions related to the heavy elements would be illustrated with few examples of general appeal, but with an accent on how to adapt such methods for similar concerns pertaining to a specific location and surrounding. The toxic effects resulting from the interference in the biological processes are currently covered under the topic of Multi Nuclear NMR applications in metabonomics. An introduction to this subject matter of metabonomics and the toxic heavy elements would be covered for the awareness of the scientific community on a broader basis.

An article for the context of NMR for oil and coal by this author can be displayed at the URL:  http://in.geocities.com/saravamudhan2002/nmr_for_oil_and_coal.html
An introductory article on NMR by this author can be displayed at the URL:  http://www.geocities.com/saravamudhan2002/nmr_article.html

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